Dag abr Datia
by QuartzSmokeyTygarWyldeTyler
Summary: Yugi, Yami, Ryo, Bakura and Seto have found themselves in the world of Alagaesia. One by one, they find out about the Riders, Galbatorix and the Varden. But is there a way home? Set after Duelist Kingdom and during Brisingr
1. Chapter 1

**Dag abr Datia  
Day of Mist**

Yugi mind-speech _/speak/_  
Yami mind-speech \_speak_\  
Ryou mind-speech /speak/  
Bakura mind-speech \speak\  
_Thoughts _(can generally be picked up by other half but are undirected)  
"Speech with occasional _emphasis_"  
_Written  
_§•§•§ line break

**Day 0, about 3PM  
Kame Game Shop, Domino City**

In the Kame Game shop, a young boy called Yugi was arguing with a 5000-year-old Egyptian spirit.

_/We should never have let Kaiba learn how to summon monsters from the shadow realm!/_ Insisted Yugi. _/He doesn't even believe in magic!/_

_\Exactly,\_ Yami argued, _\He'll probably forget about it, and even if he doesn't, we know that he won't abuse his power. He'd only use it if it was the absolute last resort.\_

Yugi thought for a moment. _/Fine. But if we hear reports of dragons on the news, I'll be saying 'I-told-ya-so'./_

Yugi sighed. Someone had stolen his Grandfather's Blue Eyes White Dragon card. It was unusable, but the loss had hurt both his grandfather and himself.

He blinked. It was on his desk. Repaired. The only thing that showed that it had ever been ripped in half was a thin golden line… _/Yami, where did this come from?/_

_\I don't know. But the items find their way back to their owners, perhaps cards do the same.\_

_/And repair themselves?/_

_\... actually, that's a good point.\_

_/So what is it?/_

_\Yugi, I'm going to be blunt here.\_

_/Ok…/_

_\Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.\_

Yugi put the card in his pocket. It wouldn't fit in his deck, but it would be nice to have the old card near.

_§•§•§_

**Day 0, about 3PM  
Ryou Bakura's apartment, Domino City**

/But I don't _want_ to rob a bank! Even if I'm not doing the actual robbing, it'll be me that gets caught! And it'll go onto _my_ record, and I'll be the one that goes to prison./

\Ryou, Ryou, Ryou,\ The Spirit of the Millennium Ring laughed. \Do you really think I'd get caught?\

/YES!/

\I have _never_ been caught.\

/Well, there's a first time for everything…./ Ryou knew that nothing would change the mind of his Yami, but he tried anyway.

\Shut up. Do you want me to lock you in your soul room?\

Ryou started. /N-no./

\So shut up.\

_To any Gods that may listen, my will is in my drawer…_

\RYOU!\

/Shutting up now!/

§•§•§

**Day 0, about 2PM  
Office of Seto Kaiba, KaibaCorp**

Seto Kaiba, the CEO of the largest gaming industry in the world, was annoyed. Everyone in the company, with the possible exception of his younger brother Mokuba, was a complete ignoramus.

He'd already had to sack three people today.

And as if that wasn't enough, that crazy kid Yugi had spent the better part of his yesterday "teaching him" how to summon "monsters" from some imaginary place called the "Shadow Realm". Kaiba had humoured the Number One duellist in the world (after they had duelled for it and Kaiba lost… again) only because he _was_ the number one duellist, and had left as soon as possible.

He fingered the card that he had swiped from the Kame Game Shop, the fourth Blue-Eyes White Dragon. The one he had ripped in half. Believe it or not, Kaiba_ did_ feel some remorse over that particular action he had taken. He sighed, stared at the card for a full minute, then exited the program he had been working on, shut his laptop, and started walking down to one of the repair labs.

One hour later, the only thing that showed that the card had ever been damaged was a thin golden line. Unsure why he was doing this, Kaiba fingered the now-whole card. "This is your birthday present for the next 20 years, Yugi."

It wasn't like he'd put it in his deck.

Kaiba put the card down on the table to rub his head. He went to pick up the card.

It was as though it had never been there.

§•§•§

**Day 0, about 3:10PM  
Kame Game Shop, Domino City**

Yugi Muto had a killer headache, and despite the fact that he had no physical body, the Spirit of the Puzzle had one too._ /What do you think this headache is, Yami?/_

_\I'm not sure, but I have spots dancing through my vision.\_

_/Great, so it's not just me./_ The duellist whacked his forehead with his palm. _/It's almost like there's something pulling on my brain./_

_\Pulling?\_

_/What? It's the only word I can think of to describe it!/_

_\No, I'm feeling something similar…\_Both Gamers slipped into their incorporeal forms. Looking around the room, they felt that something… wasn't… _right_. It was a little like trying to describe a dream to someone who wasn't there, but it seemed to be drawing them in. Then, the force seemed to heave, and they both started sliding.

_/Yami!/_

Clinging to each other, the two spirits disappeared.  
Their body followed.

§•§•§

**Day 0, 3:10PM  
Ryou Bakura's apartment, Domino City**

/Please don't rob the bank, Bakura./

\Why ever not?\

/Because…/ Ryou floundered about for an excuse, settling on the one thing that had been troubling him for the past 10 minutes. /Because I have a headache, and you'll probably get one soon. Remember that time with the flu?/

Bakura stared at Ryou's spirit-form, frowning slightly. /Bakura, what is it?/

\It doesn't happen to feel like you're being pulled towards something without moving an inch, does it?\

/Actually, it does. I was concentrating on the headache itself, but it does kind of feel like that with my body as well. Well, this form, since you've kicked me out of my body…/

\Don't get snippy, landlord. This is serious.\ Bakura thought for about half a second, flipping through memories. \Shit.\ The Spirit grabbed a backpack and started piling things into it. Knives, bottles, string, rope, matches…

/Bakura, how many knives do you have?/

\If you were trapped in the middle of nowhere, what would you take with you? Not too heavy, because we won't be able to carry it…\

/Bakura, what are you talking about?/

\Answer the bloody question!\

/Money./

\I'm a thief, Ryou, I don't exactly need money.\

/Jacket, gloves, hat. Hairbrush./

\Hairbrush?\

Bakura ran to the bedroom and grabbed a vest, jacket, gloves, and two different hats.

/Writing implements and paper./

Bakura nodded, trying to resist his own headache.

/A towel./

\What!\

/Not a big one, just a towel./

Bakura darted around, stuffing it into his backpack, before fingering something in his pocket.

/Is that a Millennium item?/

\Yes, it's the Eye.\

/Why are you packing a backpack as though we're about to be left in the middle of nowhere? Woah…/

Spirit-Ryou fell to his knees, his headache suddenly worse. Bakura grabbed him, keeping the Eye in his pocket and the backpack in his other hand.

The empty apartment fell silent, as though two seconds before there hadn't been an ex-tomb robber grabbing items as though his life depended on it.

§•§•§

**Day 0, about 3:10  
KaibaCorp labs, KaibaCorp**

After scouring the lab and finding nothing, Kaiba turned his attention to a headache that had been plaguing him for at leas ten minutes, and it was accompanied by a tugging feeling, as though someone was trying to wrest his consciousness away… "Don't be stupid," he muttered, "it's just a headache."

Massaging his temples, Kaiba took some deep breaths.

The headache remained.

Sighing, the CEO began to walk down the hallway for a glass of water, and possibly some aspirin.

Leaning against the wall while he attempted to banish the spots in his vision, Kaiba took another deep breath.

The tugging in his head increased, before disappearing altogether.

Along with Seto Kaiba's body.

**Fist chapter done!  
Technically it's the prologue, but still…**

**Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy reference in there. E-cookie if you find it!**


	2. Chapter 2

Yugi mind-speech _/speak/_  
Yami mind-speech \_speak_\  
Ryou mind-speech /speak/  
Bakura mind-speech \speak\  
_Thoughts _(can generally be picked up by other half but are undirected)  
"Speech with occasional _emphasis_"  
_Written, memories  
_§•§•§ line break

There **is** a disclaimer on my profile. However, I deemed it prudent to include one in the chapter as well. **I do not have any copyright ownership to any of the characters in this fic – the only thing I can lay any sort of claim to is the plot. I am **_**not**_** Christopher Paolini or Kazuki Takahashi. I am not making any profit out of this.**

_Dag Abr Datia_

**Day 1, Morning  
Unknown Coastline**

Yugi groaned, and he heard Yami do the same. Both of them tried to get up using the one body… needless to say, said body fell down rather ungracefully.

_/Should I-/_

_\Yes. Maybe I could-\_

_/One of us./_

Both of them waited for the other to get them up.

_\I'll go,\_ laughed Yami, taking charge of Yugi's body and standing up. _\Success!\_

The spirit-form of Yugi got up as well, and the two look-alikes surveyed the area. There were no power lines, no radio towers. No faint noises of the city. There weren't even any contrails in the sky. _Where are we?_

_/Do you smell that? It's almost like…/_

_\Salt?\_ The telltale tang of it wafted on the breeze (there seemed to be something missing from the smell of the air as well, but Yugi couldn't work out what), which was drifting strongly from their right, but without a sense of where they were, it could have been blowing from east-southwest.

_/So… we're near the ocean?/_

_\An ocean, a sea, a large salt lake...\_ Yami squinted, and saw what looked like the Sun glinting off a large body of water. _\Probably the ocean, yeah.\_

_/Well, if we follow the coastline, we might find some shipping ports, or some form of civilization…_/ the implications of what he had said hit Yugi. They could be _anywhere_. They didn't know what language was spoken, what sort of technology was available… even if they were still in their own era.

Something was telling Yugi that gaming skills would be no use whatsoever.

_\Yugi, it's all right. We'll find a way home.\_

_/So what do we do?/_

_\What you said; follow the coastline. Maybe follow a large river. Towns are usually built near water supplies, right?\_

**§•§•§**

**Day 1, Morning  
Unknown Mountains.**

_What?_ Ryou Bakura blinked, taking in his surroundings, and his position amongst them. Backpack over one shoulder, Ring around his neck. Forest. Forest, some sort of clearing that looks as though a meteor hit it in the last year and burnt out some sort of crater… _Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Where…?_ Ryou paused for a moment. /Spirit?/

Somewhere, a bird chirped. Bakura did not reply.

Ryou stood up, trying to figure out what in the name of Sanity was going on. Slipping his backpack over his other shoulder (_If you were stuck in the middle of nowhere…_) he laughed. The situation was so improbable it was almost off the charts. Finding yourself in the middle of the woods (the ground was slanted, so it was either a hill or a mountain) with no idea how you had gotten there, he could almost believe that, but having time to prepare an overnight bag? That was plain silly. Well, first things first.

People. Find a town, find out what this place was, get back to Domino. Or something. "Town," he whispered to the Ring. It immediately began pointing uphill and to his left. He started following the directions of the Ring .

\Neh…\ what was going on?

Grabbing control of the body of the albino, the Spirit of the Millennium ring looked around. \Where the hell are we?\

The spirit-Ryou raised an eyebrow. /In some mountains. It's lucky it's either the wrong season or the wrong altitude for snow./

\No, I mean what _country_?\

/Japan, I assume./

\Ryou, I don't think we're even on Earth any more. If we are, we're not during your era.\

/What do you mean?/

The Darker Half of Ryou smirked. \Smell the air. It's like it's been scrubbed clean. Look at the sky, there's no trace of aeroplane-trails, and the sky's bluer than ever. It's as blue as Egypt was, in fact.\

/Dear Gods, you're right!/ Ryou suddenly found himself back in his own body. /Why?/

\We'd both be going to the same place, the nearest town. Follow the Ring.\

/… You just don't want to get physically exhausted climbing mountains./

\Yes. What would you expect?\ laughed Bakura. Ryou sighed.

"Closest town."

**§•§•§**

**Day 1, Morning  
Unknown Costal Mountainside**

Kaiba came to in the middle of some sort of hillside forest. He clambered up, checking his surroundings. Experience had told him that you could never be too careful. He still had his deck, not that it would be much use in the middle of a forest._ "And when you feel it within yourself, you can summon whatever you need to!"_ What use would cards have here?

Kaiba took stock of his surroundings (slanted ground, so I'm on a mountain or hill, morning, an ocean view that would make most people gasp in wonder) and tried to work out what had happened.

He had blacked out in the middle of a hallway, and ended up halfway up a mountain (hill?) with no city in site. Someone was _so_ getting fired over this.

The plants around him were, well, plants, but closer examination (wonder what species these plants are, if anything, it'll tell me more about the latitude) had shown that they were nothing that he had ever seen before. He was no botanist, but these plants didn't grow in Japan. He doubted they even grew on _Earth_.

As if things weren't bad enough.

It was probably a misunderstanding. He _wasn't_ a professional botanist, after all.

The question of where he was, however, remained.

He checked his surroundings once more (no ships on the ocean, no radio towers or power lines), before proceeding to begin climbing down the hill (mountain?). He'd find a port if he hugged the coastline long enough.

Cursing after he misjudged a distance and rolled 10 metres (his white trench coat now had a few grass stains and a mud mark), he stood once again.

A town came into view, and from his vantage point he could see that some architects had had a field day. What sort of people arrange their town to be shaped like a pentagon, with a pentagram of buildings within it?

No where he had heard of had _any_ sort of design like that. Feeling slightly apprehensive, Kaiba altered his route down.

**§•§•§**

In other news, if you can work out where the characters are, congratulations, because I raided my brain, my books and Wikipedia for information and came up with little more than general geography, a few quirks and why it's on the map. It probably goes (in order of difficulty) Bakuras (what's the plural, Bakurae? I think the two are interchangeable) Yugi/Yami then Seto. Seto's location does exist, it's been mentioned, it's on the map. It's people have very strange customs.

It is so difficult to find a topographical map of Alagaësia. I mean, seriously. There's the map at the front of the book, but that doesn't show grassland/plains. So if I do something that contradicts the books, call it creative licence.

Also, please assume that the people in Alagaësia speak Japanese. I mean, the elves use similar methods for their swordforging…


	3. Chapter 3

Yugi mind-speech _/speak/_  
Yami mind-speech \_speak_\  
Ryou mind-speech /speak/  
Bakura mind-speech \speak\  
_Thoughts _(can generally be picked up by other half but are undirected)  
"Speech with occasional _emphasis_"  
_Written, memories  
_§•§•§ line break

Dag Abr Datia

**Day 1, late afternoon  
Unknown Coastline**

Yugi was wishing he had something to eat that was more substantial that the half-melted chocolate bar in his pocket. The horizon was as desolate as…

_\Yugi, what's that?\_

A town of some sort, it was surrounded by a huge wall. It had several roads leading into it. Unsealed, dusty roads that looked as though they had been designed for horses and carts than automobiles… forget designed, it just looked like a few people had taken the same route, and the ground underneath had stopped growing grass.

Yami and Yugi approached the town. A medium-sized (and fairly illegible) sign proclaimed something that may have once been the name.

_T..e Keep o… …s…r  
Go….d b.. ..e l…y Lo…a_

It was covered in marks that looked as though they had been made by swords, or spears. There were even… _/Are they _arrow holes?/

Yugi checked his belongings. Chocolate wrapper (don't litter, I'll find a bin somewhere), pen (how'd that get there?), Puzzle around his neck (where else would it be?), deck. Wait, deck! They should have summoned a monster! It would definitely have saved time, and it might have told them more about what was happening.

Oh well.

Yugi walked up to the gate, where there was a small number of people queuing. Some sort of guard was checking people were who they said they were. _/What are we, Yami?/_

_\Tell the truth-\_

_/What!/_

_\That we're lost. And it wouldn't hurt to add that we aren't sure where we are.\_

_/You do that, I can't lie!/_

_\Yes you can.\_

_/Ok, I'm really bad at lying./_

The two switched, and aside from a momentary glow from the Puzzle (which could be easily passed off as a trick of the light), the only discernable difference between the boy that had been standing there two seconds ago was the aura he radiated (he seemed to stand as though he was a king as well), and his eyes, which were now harder and crimson.

"Who're you, then?" Yami looked at the guardsman.

"A traveller. I got lost…"

"More likely an agent for them Varden, I'd say." _What's the Varden?_

For half a second, Yami wished he had the Millennium Rod.

"Look. I'm not working for the… Varden, you say? Well, logically, you could say I'd say that even if I were. But I can assure you, I'm not." The guardsman didn't look impressed. Yugi's Spirit-form looked at him – he wasn't much older than 20.

"The King's new Rider would obliterate the town if he found out that any of us let in one of the rebels."

"Arguing the point isn't going to shift either of us, and we're holding up the line."

Yami glared at the man, feeling some of his inherited power coming through. The man looked suddenly relieved to have a half-decent excuse for letting in a possible enemy, and nodded, letting him pass.

_\Thank the Gods, I thought he'd never see reason!\_

_/Who do you think these Varden are?/_

_\Rebels, apparently.\_

_/We'll need to find somewhere to stay. But we'll need money first… We could offer to do jobs for an inn, in return for a place to sleep…/_

_\An inn?\_

_/Well, it looks like we're stuck before electricity. So they probably have inns./_

/The Sorcerer and the Devil? _Sounds promising./_

_\Do you want me to do the actual bargaining?\_

**§•§•§**

**Day 1, late afternoon  
Unknown forest on the side of a mountain**

\So let me get this straight, Hikari. We are in the middle of a forest on a mountain, following an ancient Item's internal compass. Not only that, but somehow, we're before humans started using fossil fuels for power. Possibly before the invention of the wheel.\

/That pretty much sums it up./ Ryou clambered over a log. /What do you think happened in that clearing?/

\Magic.\

/Really?/

\Yes. Magical shockwave, ripped through the place. I'd say someone transported an item through the Shadow Realm without accompanying it.\ **(1)**

/People can do that?/

\Not without a huge energy cost, but yes, some can.\

Ryou stepped onto some sort of animal track. It was meandering in the same general direction as the Ring was pointing. It would be a lot easier to walk along a path than fight his way through trees.

The game trail led towards a (fairly ugly) town. It was mismatched in every sense of the word, and "order", "sense" and "reason", along a hearty dose of "logic" seemed to have flown out the window when someone designed this place.

\Alright, Hikari, you've done your bit,\ stated Bakura, before promptly taking over his body.

/'Kura!/

\Shut up, Hikari,\ said Bakura, then proceeded to what seemed to be the centre of the pub, to find out exactly what was going on in this world, and swipe some coins while he was at it.

**§•§•§**

**Day 1, late afternoon  
Unknown Costal Mountainside, en route to pentagram-shaped town**

Seto Kaiba was not the sort of person who enjoyed being kept in the dark. He seemed to channel this drive for knowledge into actual information, but without a large encyclopaedia or an internet connection at his disposal, the best he could do was make a list of things he would like to know and answer them using the evidence from his surroundings, and what he found out once he was in the town.

_1. Where was he?  
2. How did he get here?  
3. How do I get back?  
And as an afterthought – 4. Why am I here?_

He jumped down the last part of the mountain (it was a 2 metre drop off a mini-cliff), and began walking towards the town.

Now that he could see what he was looking at from ground level, it didn't really look much stranger than any other city. Well, any other medieval city.

No electricity, no radio, and therefore probably no holograms.

Feeling slightly apprehensive, Kaiba made to enter the town, before stopping, and looking at the message inscribed on the door. _Left foot first_. Shrugging, Kaiba continued through the street. _That must be the fifth church and second library I passed…._

With a lack of anything else to do, the CEO of the largest gaming industry on Earth booked a room for the night in a lovely inn called the "lucky swine". He tried to ignore the fact that everyone gasped when they discovered that he had gotten the key to room 14, and _did_ ignore the fact that every so often, someone would run out of the room, or hop, or cartwheel, to "ward off bad luck". Not forgetting to knock on the doorframe three times, of course.

**(1)** – Oromis states fairly clearly in Brisingr that an item teleported using Elven Magic takes exactly the same amount of energy to go across a river to across to the Boer Mountains. He never specifies why this is, so this is just my take on it. Also, it took someone with the skill and strength of Arya almost all her energy to transport an egg the size of maybe my head. My theory is, they used the shadow realm (without knowing), and if they accompanied the item, it would take far less energy (provided, of course, they weren't consumed by the shadows). No elf has ever tried transporting themselves, because of the sheer amount of energy they thought they would need. And really, who can blame them? It took a fair amount of Eragon's energy to send a pebble tumbling through.

This is just my opinion – similar sorts of things will happen throughout this fic. For the record, Elven magic is not the same as Shadow Magic. However, it is similar enough that when an Elven-Magic user uses the transport spell (and a couple of other technical exceptions to this rule) they don't really know the difference.

And I know you're there!  
It really bugs me when authors beg for reviews, so I'm not begging. Really. I'm just going to say "please just drop a note and say wether you liked it or not". At least 8 people have read this. I actually check my story traffic. Just please. One review.  
There's still a chance to guess which towns they are in. No, the pub names aren't canon.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Yugi mind-speech _/speak/_  
Yami mind-speech \_speak_\  
Ryou mind-speech /speak/  
Bakura mind-speech \speak\  
_Thoughts _(can generally be picked up by other half but are undirected)  
"Speech with occasional _emphasis_"  
_Written, memories  
_§•§•§ line break

I still don't own anything except for copies of the book/mangas.

**Dag Abr Datia**

Day 2, Morning  
The Keep of Feinster

After assuring the landlord that no he _wasn't_ a sorcerer, dwarf (Yami had taken offence at that), Varden-supporter (he still didn't know who/what these so-called "rebels" were rebelling against), that he _wasn't _looking for his mother, that he _was_ old enough to work in an inn, and that his hair would _not_ scare away potential patrons ("I can always tie it with a wet cloth…"), and that yes, he would change his clothes (_/as soon as I find some_/), Yugi had managed to get himself a job at _The Sorcerer and the Devil_.

He had also managed to persuade the landlord that to lend him a room ("It doesn't have to be big or anything…"), and his daughter, Chrysanthe, to tell him what the hell was going on. Yami had been trying to get through some door in his soul room, so Yugi now had to tell him what _was_ going on. While cleaning the tables.

_/Ok, so we have one king who's a bit of a tyrant,/_

_\Can't _imagine_ what Bakura would say to that.\_

Yugi grinned as he wiped the table.

_/One tyrannical king, one group of rebels from the south/_

_\This sounds vaguely familiar…\_

_/Like _you_ ever pay attention in history! There's heaps of examples throughout history of stuff like this happening!/_

_\Like…?\_

Yugi thought for a moment, picking at something sticky on the table. _/I never pay attention in history either, but I bet there are. But yes, one rebellion, one tyrant, one officially neutral country to the south, coincidently where the rebels are/_

_\Convenient.\_

_/And some elves that disappeared a while back but are rumoured to be joining the rebels, and dwarves, who we know very little about, aside from the fact that they too are on the Varden's side. Quite a few towns to the North were slaughtered by his servants, or soldiers, or something on his orders, and that's one of the main reasons why more people are joining the Varden./_

_\If the King has Elves, Dwarves, and practically another country against him, how's he holding his own?\_

_/Chrysanthe was sketchy about the details, I don't think anyone really knows, but apparently he's a really powerful sorcerer. Also, he's a Dragon Rider, and he has another one on his side as well./_

_\Dragons! If Kaiba was here…\_

_/He'd go nuts. No internet, no electricity, no plumbing, magic at every turn. He would go absolutely crazy. But yeah, magic and riders and dragons, and that second rider is what the whole town's afraid of. Red dragon, apparently, and the rider's named Murtagh./_

_\Everyone here has such weird names.\_

_/Like you're one to talk, Nameless-Pharaoh-who-has-so-many-names-it's-almost-funny./_ At Yami's wordless question, Yugi answered _/Come on! Son-of-Re, King-of-upper-and-lower-Egypt, Pharaoh, Great One, He of the Sedge and Bee, and that's just off the top of my head from what I learned from history however many years ago it was when we studied Ancient Egypt./_

_\Most, if not all, Pharaohs had those titles. I mean _names_.\_

_/I know, I was just needling you./_ Yugi waited for a moment. _/Did none of those names ring a bell?/_

A huge flash of white-blue raced across the sky, and half a second later, a huge roar shook the foundations of the town.

_/Bet that's the Varden!/_

_\With a dragon, too. I wonder if it looks like Kaiba's…\_

_/Um, Yami, _dragon_? War? A huge gate that I don't think anyone could get through, unless they're magicians or…/_

_\Riders, hence the dragon-roar.\_

_/We're about to get stormed, aren't we?/_

**§•§•§**

Day 1, Late  
Therinsford inn  
The ex-tomb-robber walked into a bar. It would have been the perfect setup for a joke.

Snitching some coins from a man's purse (not too many, so as not to tip off anyone that there was a thief around), Bakura looked at them. Ryou's spirit-form hovered beside him.

/Why are you looking at the coin?/

Bakura didn't answer for a moment, but went up to the bar and ordered a cup of something, but Ryou didn't catch what it was. Walking through a table towards him, Ryou looked at what it was.

Mead, apparently.

There wasn't a radio pushing out music, nor was there a TV with the sport on, and, while Ryou didn't make a habit of going to bars, he was fairly sure that they usually had lights, rather than candles. There weren't any streetlights, either.

\Ok,\ said Bakura, \We're someplace that's a monarchy-tyranny, there's no electricity, the King is an asshole, and there's some rebels in the south, dwarves, elves, and dragons are real, and there's a huge war going on in the south with the king drafting in pretty much all the men in the kingdom.\

Ryou stared at Bakura. /You found that out just by ordering a drink?/

\I listen, Ryou. To all intents and purposes, you're a ghost. You are in a much better position to find out what's going on.\

Ryou drifted around for a while /Please don't get my body drunk, Yami. I might need it in the morning./

All things considered, it could have been far, far worse.

/Haven't found out much, but apparently there was a _massive_ exodus from a town near here, called "Carvahall", and they've gone to help the 'Varden', which are the rebel group in the south./

\Good, Hikari.\

Bakura got up. \Come on, we're leaving.\

With some apprehension, Ryou queried /Where to?/

\These Varden. Rebel group in the south, Evil Overlord King, magic all through the place… any of this ringing any bells?\

Ryou floated alongside Bakura as he closed the Inn's door. /Yugi's Yami wasn't evil when he was a Pharaoh!/

\_That_ is a matter of opinion.\

Aside from a brief argument, where it was found out that Ryou Bakura was _actually_ quite good at horse-riding1, nothing more was said between the two until they reached Daret.

/What are we going to do with the horse, Bakura?/

Eventually, the Spirit and Bearer reached the agreement that they would just ride a horse as fast as they could, and when it was too tired to do anything ditch it and get another one. Ryou had been quite opposed to stealing a horse at each town, but Bakura had pointed out that it would be cruel to do anything else…

Getting off the chestnut without too much hassle (/Couldn't we have gotten a better saddle?/), Ryou made his way to the stable.

Muttering a quick apology to whoever owned the horse, and taking a looooong swig from his water-skin (he would have traded his knives for a water bottle), Ryou coaxed a dark bay out of the stable, tacked it up, and started riding, not in the least tired.

\*snore*\

**§•§•§**

Day 1, Evening-ish  
Kuasta

Seto Kaiba had, through observations through his window and eavesdropping, found that the people in this town seemed to be 1) extremely superstitous and 2), everyone seemed to believe in magic.

He had found absolutely nothing useful by way of maps, coins, or technology.

There still wasn't a signal for his mobile.

_I hope Mokuba's all right_.

He started going through the cupboard, hoping that there would be something to eat.

There was one loaf of bread, and it was…. Upside down…

There was also a note, which seemed to be quite recently written.

_Blue-eyed stranger,  
We know that by having you here, our luck will grow. Feel free to ask for any drinks or items of food on the menu, you will not have to pay.  
We understand that you are a stranger to these parts, and so are ignorant of the ways of the luck-spirits of Kuasta. Be sure to knock on the doorframe three times before entering or leaving a room, keep something in the fireplace, and make sure there are acorns hanging out of the window.  
Thankyou for blessing our inn with your presence.  
Atra Esternì un ilian tauthr onr wyrda__2_

_These people are crackpots,_ was Kaiba's first impression.

He had snorted at the "blue-eyes" comment, and read the rest with growing scepticism.

He went down to the inn and ordered a bread roll soon after.

_Free service is free service,_ was his excuse.

Day 1, late enough to be early  
Kuasta

_I am going to go out of my mind._

Seto Kaiba had managed to figure out most of the superstitions of the place (apparently, bread must be stored upside down, green eyes were bad, blue eyes were good, and flies were not to be swatted), and he was having trouble trying to keep his head straight.

"And the Varden now have a Blue-Dragon…" _What? Dragons? Who are these Varden?_ Walking slowly towards the source of the voice, he found a man with a beard and pipe telling a story.

"Yes, the Varden have a powerful Rider on their side, and a blue dragon, too. They have the Dwarves and the Elves riled and are going to storm Urû'baen and kill Galbatorix!" A small crowd of about 10 people had gathered, and most were listening with interest.

"Where are these Varden now?", Kaiba found himself asking.

"They're across the mountains."

_If they have powerful enough technology to make these people believe they have magic, they might have electricity. The internet, even. Planes, yes, that would probably be the dragon…_ Lost in thought, Kaiba did not notice the old man looking at him curiously.

"Hey," the man whispered to him a few minutes later, "You're not from Kuasta, are you?" He had then extinguished his pipe and started walking out.

Curiosity roused, Kaiba followed him outside.

The man looked at him for about 20 seconds. "You know," he observed, "most people would say it's impossible to get a coat to flare out like that without magic."

Kaiba looked at him for about two seconds before replying with the first thing that came into his head: "Magic doesn't exist."

The old man nodded, smiling, and took out a piece of paper. "Here," he said, "Map of Alagaësia. We're here," he pointed to a town labeled _Kuasta_, to the left-hand-side of the map. "I assume you want to go to the Varden?"

Kaiba nodded, to busy committing the map to memory to speak. _Forest to the north, mountain range down the coast, desert and nothing marked beyond…_

"You go here." The man pointed to a town marked _Feinster_, "The Varden are either taking the town now, or have already taken it." He looked at Kaiba a little longer. "Why are you joining the Varden?"  
"Who says I want to join? They seem to have the best technology, so they're much more likely to be able to get me home."

The man frowned slightly. "Where is home?"

Kaiba snorted. "A long way away from here, that's for sure. Anyway, what's your name?"

The man smiled. "Call me Platitude."

Kaiba raised one eyebrow. _If his name is Platitude then I'm a seahorse._

"Thanks for your help."

"I'm not finished."

"Eh?" Kaiba treated the man to one of his more contemptuous gazes. The man seemed to be unaffected.

"I'm coming with you. I'm not letting that map out of my sight, and anyway, I have someone to meet."

1I am not a horse-y person, and most of the stuff I know about them comes from random computer games and comments dropped by my friend Mefeira, who _is_ horse-y, or at least moderately knowledgeable about them. I DO know that it's enough of a sport to make you pretty tired, but I figured that any fatigue leaves the body as soon as the spirit possessing/living in it does. Therefore, Ryou can ride a horse for say…. 3 hours or so at a gallop, and when Bakura thinks he's tired enough _he'll_ take over, Ryou can recover in spirit-form (where he can basically just float along or stay in his soul room, or sleep or something), and Bakura is fresh.  
Constantly riding a horse at a gallop for hours would tire it out enough that it wouldn't really be able to do much of anything the next day, I assume, therefore we have the ditch-the-horse-find-a-horse thing. Basically, each town they come to, they get steal a new horse.

2If you figure out what that means you get… cookies? Isn't that what's usually offered? Eh, cookies or bragging rights. And acknowledgement. Yes.

Side note: look up Platitude in the Thesaurus. Ooh, yes, I have a plan.

Thankyou to the following people for REVIEWING: twilightiskewl, misssun1, Frenzi99 and an Unknown  
Thankyou to the following people for Fav/Alerting (which I assume means that you like it and/or want me to continue) vampiregirl 31, nevtanis, icantthinkofausername, Redsiree, twilightiskewl, Avampiress, Callette, .dragona, Taxicat2, Kai3anime, LivingLegends, and duckqueen.  
If I missed anyone, I'm sorry!


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